California Rep. Jackie Speier, who has earned a reputation as vanguard legislator regarding efforts to address sexual assault in the military, said Wednesday that it may be filmmakers — not lawmakers — who have had the most influence in addressing the epidemic tragedy that affects 1 in 5 enlisted women.
The Peninsula Democrat on Wednesday cited the Oscar-nominated documentary, “The Invisible War” — co-executive produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom — has having a dramatic influence on changing millions of hearts and minds on the issue.
“This film has been extraordinary in its impact,” said Speier in a session with the Chronicle editorial board Wednesday. “Far more than anything we do in Congress.”
First, take a look at the trailer for the film, nominated for “Best Documentary” by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences for this year’s Oscars, to be broadcast Sunday:

Speier, who has delivered more than two dozen House speeches on military sexual trauma, said it took a film to bring to millions of Americans the full tragedy of survivors’ stories and a continuing system that is designed to protect perpetrators and punish the estimated half a million victims.
But even as she last month introduced related new legislation — the Protect Our Military Trainees Act — Speier says she has gotten little Republican support for efforts to change the Military Code of Conduct, which she described as nearly medieval even today. What’s needed is to “change the chain of command” in cases where sexual assault has been alleged, and to mount an aggressive effort to end “a culture heavy on retaliation and light on prosecution,” she said.

As Siebel Newsom prepares this week to go to the Oscars with her husband and kids in tow, she says she has been “profoundly” moved by the widely praised impacts of the film, a startling indictment of military leadership.

“I’m just so floored that (the Congresswoman) said that. Leon Panetta said how moving and powerful the film was. Some of his team have said his response wouldn’t have happened without the film,” she told the Chronicle in a phone interview today.

Both the President and the First Lady have copies of the film, and “we know they care about those issues,” she said. The members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have seen the film, and “we also know that the Army, the Air Force, and the National Guard are now using the film” as part of their training on the issue.
The impact shows that, particularly in an era when social media is driving the discussion, “I think we’re hitting a time when documentaries have this incredible ability…to not only incite emotion but also to encourage action,” she said.

But Siebel Newsom is also quick to note that the film by Kirby Dick (“Outrage”) and Amy Ziering, was a team effort which involved the work of many dedicated women — including co- executive producers Regina Kulik Scully, Maria Cuomo Cole, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Sarah Johnson Redlich, Sally Jo Fifer, Nicole Boxer-Keegan, Kimball Stroud and Abigail Disney.

But “The Invisible War” is just the latest in Siebel Newsom’s efforts to highlight women’s issues in film and social media.

She was writer, director, and producer of the highly acclaimed documentary “Miss Representation” — a look at media portrayals of women and their under-representation in positions of power and influence. Then Siebel Newsom went on to found MissRepresentation.org, which she calls a “call-to-action movement that provides women and girls the tools to realize their full potential.”

She won’t jinx the Oscars by making predictions, but Seibel Newsom says she is excited, and most of all indebted to those who have come forward in “The Invisible War” — sometimes under great duress — to tell their stories.

“Until we truly address silence in our culture and really curtail it and ensure perpetrators are punished,” she said, “until we really resolve this crisis, you’re not going to see equality.”